Built from scratch

Goshen man creates model of Carnegie Library building.

Goshen man creates model of Carnegie Library building.

August 21, 2006|ERIN MILLER Tribune Staff Writer

GOSHEN -- Jack McKeever's version of Goshen's Carnegie library building doesn't have any books on the inside. But that's about the only thing missing from the scale model McKeever spent two years designing and building. "People say, 'Where are the books?' " McKeever said on a recent morning inside the studio that adjoins his apartment at Greencroft Retirement Community. "I couldn't find a publisher to publish them that small." Actually, the interior of the library model isn't visible, though working lights do illuminate the windows, made of sanded plastic to look like translucent glass. On the outside, every detail is there, from the red tile roof to working globe streetlights out front. McKeever, 86, and his wife of seven years, Betty Jean McKeever, 87, grew up in Goshen. They have memories of visiting the library, which was completed in 1903. In particular, they remember avoiding the wrath of the librarian who was in charge during in the 1920s. "We feared her with a passion," McKeever said. "We would go in, we would make a little bit of noise and she would go, 'shh, shh, shh.' " Those memories, as well as a growing interest in woodworking, prompted McKeever to take on the project in 2004. But because none of the original building plans still existed, he, Betty Jean, and a grandson spent two weeks measuring the building, which now houses Goshen's city offices. McKeever, a metalworker by trade who once owned a precision metal working shop and supplied sheet metal to airplane manufacturers, took the measurements and drew up plans. The end result was a scale of one-half inch equal to one foot. Goshen was the first city in Indiana to receive a grant from Andrew Carnegie, McKeever said. Carnegie's donations helped build more than 1,600 libraries in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The couple plans to donate the finished building to the Goshen Public Library. Asked what inspired him to take on the project, McKeever looked to his wife for an answer. "You've always had an admiration for the library," Betty Jean McKeever said. Still, he admitted there were days he just wanted to give up. "This was just the outcome of, I guess, cussedness, that I wanted to finish something," McKeever said. "I wanted to quit several times. She wouldn't let me. So I finished."Staff writer Erin Miller: emiller@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6553